Netanyahu offers Trump ‘gift’ of Lebanon ceasefire talks — despite most Israelis disagreeing

Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer met with President-elect Trump during a visit to his Florida estate on Sunday, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Sunday’s discussions at Mar-a-Lago centered on an Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon that involves Western and Russian cooperation, according to the Post. Dermer secretly visited Russia last week for follow-up discussions, after Russian officials visited Israel on Oct. 27 to discuss the plan.

The proposal calls for Moscow to prevent Hezbollah from resupplying via Syrian land routes.

According to Israeli officials, other details of the plan include moving the Hezbollah terrorist group north of the Litani River. The Lebanese military would then take control of the border area for a period of 60 days, overseen by the United States and Britain.

A source close to the Iranian terror proxy told the Post that Hezbollah would be willing to withdraw its forces north of the Litani as part of a temporary ceasefire deal. The terrorist group has yet to receive a formal proposal to end the fighting, according to the source.

Citing three current and former Israeli officials briefed on the meeting, the newspaper reported that Jerusalem is rushing to advance a ceasefire plan in Lebanon as a “welcome gift” to Trump. This would hand the Republican an early diplomatic victory upon his return to the White House.

“There is an understanding that Israel would gift something to Trump … that in January there will be an understanding about Lebanon,” an Israeli official said.

Hezbollah began launching thousands of rockets, missiles and drones at Israel the day after Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. Over 60,000 Israeli citizens remain internally displaced from their homes in the north due to the ongoing Hezbollah attacks.

Israel is closer to reaching a deal to stop the fighting with Hezbollah than it has been since the start of the war, but it must retain the freedom to act in Lebanon should any deal be violated, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, a member of Jerusalem’s security Cabinet, said on Thursday.

“We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel,” Cohen told the Reuters wire agency.

A senior Israeli diplomatic official confirmed to Israel Hayom on Saturday that there has been a significant breakthrough in efforts to achieve a diplomatic settlement.

One potential sticking point, however, is the ability of Israeli forces to reenter Lebanese territory if Hezbollah attempts to rearm and reestablish itself.

The official emphasized that the Israel Defense Forces will retain operational freedom to respond to any security threats from across the northern border, regardless of any diplomatic arrangements or paper agreements.

However, the source close to Hezbollah told the Post that the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.”

Following his meetings in Florida with Trump and his son-in-law and former senior adviser Jared Kushner, Dermer headed to Washington to meet Monday and Tuesday with Biden administration officials,  including Amos Hochstein, the president’s special envoy to Lebanon.

If the ceasefire efforts fail, an Israeli military official told the Post that there are plans in the works to expand ground operations in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Israel is continuing ground activities in Southern Lebanon and conducting aerial strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut and across the country.

Voices in Netanyahu’s coalition are also calling for the continuation of military pressure, including new Defense Minister Israel Katz, who said on Tuesday that “In Lebanon, there will be no ceasefire and no pause. We will continue to strike Hezbollah with full force until our war objectives are achieved.”

The Israeli public also supports the continuation of military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A majority of Jewish Israelis back the continuation of IDF operations in Southern Lebanon, a survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute on Sunday shows.

A majority of Jewish Israeli respondents (54%) said they support a continuation of the fighting, while a minority (38%) expressed support for ceasefire negotiations with the Lebanese state.

A Trump official told the Post that Kushner is expected to play an advisory role in any future negotiations with Saudi Arabia on normalization with Israel, even if he isn’t appointed to a formal White House position. Kushner helped broker the Abraham Accords during Trump’s first term in office, which established diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.